Minimalism, and the minimalist lifestyle

[pureleeawesome]

I have started the purge of the non-fiction book section.

Mercy, I beg you. Mercy.

[Jord]

Following along because I'm also about that getting rid of excess stuff life. I think it's because I grew up in a terribly messy and unorganized home that now I crave order and a lack of junk. 

 

Gonna be working on purging the clothing closet this weekend, getting that spring cleaning feeling! Plus I need to buy some summer clothes that fit better, which in my opinion necessitates getting rid of clothes that don't fit. 

[Waldo]

 

Lawl KM's house really lacks personality to me. I guess not everybody needs that in their home. I like having photos and artwork on display. The lack of color kind of creeps me out.

 

And ONE kitchen knife?! Geez. Having small, large, and serrated is freaking wonderful and I would never change that. Plus my knife handles make a rainbow :3

 

I don't think it lacks personality... I think it lacks taste.  It oozes personality.

 

Chairs don't have to be uncomfortable hunks of wood to be minimal.  Slipcovered sofa, yuk.  The lack of color despite all the ornate (and rather gaudy) architectural details.  Little pillow explosion.  A headboardless bed...hate.  A huge ornate mirror as artwork...just shoot me.

 

Eclectic design like that just looks like disorder to my eyes; mixing and matching different styles, and very little repetition.  Speaking a singular design language with order and symmetry is to me much more pleasing.

 

For example, our bed is now the last piece of furniture in our house that is not some derivative of modern; vintage, retro, or contemporary.  Pictures are hung in doubles or triples (as are little accent shelves that are used in places in lieu of art); same sizes/frames, larger art has no competition on the wall, no matter how big, almost all are the exact same height.  Our house is modern, which means no ornate details, instead interest comes from texture, glass, and color (but most walls are white).  Wooden furniture (+ shelves, lamps, etc..) is all walnut, with a couple of strongly contrasting maple/birch things.  Symmetry can be found throughout our house.

[Slayer]

On 4/14/2016 at 4:24 PM, pureleeawesome said:

I have started the purge of the non-fiction book section.

Mercy, I beg you. Mercy.

This has been a huge challenge for me, too. One thing I've found helps is if you have books you love but know you should probably get rid of, find a loved one or an acquaintance who could get more value out of it than you do. It's the only way for me to get rid of some of my books if I know it's going to improve a dear friend's life. Even if you don't have someone specific in mind, donating books means the books that are gathering dust on your shelf could be adding value to someone else's life.

[Raincloak]

Had the family over last weekend for Mother's Day brunch.  Currently my living room looks perfect, but the bedroom's a wreck (since I shoved a bunch of crap in there while tidying the living room).

 

Today I addressed some of that, getting rid of a stack of magazines and clothes that are destined for donation.  Ran out of steam after filling two and a half bags, but it's progress.

 

Still need to review my unfortunate collection of office slacks.  None of them fit (usually the cuffs are too long or the butt sags), but every time I get a new office job, I freak out and buy some anyway.  (The brown ones with pinstripes are particularly hideous; whatever possessed me to get those?  Oh yeah, I remember; they were one of the pairs that came closest to properly fitting.) 

 

Currently I have a half-time office job that doesn't require hateful pants (no dress code, hooray!!), and though it's definitely better than usual, it's beginning to dawn on me that maybe I'm just not made for a desk.  I certainly am not made for retail, it's too damn depressing.  Having spent the last few weeks working at a store that sells fine furniture, I can tell you I've never been happier that all my own furniture is secondhand and well broken in.  Unlike our customers, I don't have to put up a huge fuss (and create hours of work for a service rep like yours truly) when my $4000 new sofa arrives with a scuff on the leather.

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Following along in the hopes of finding inspiration.  I'm still cleaning out my late mother's stuff.  Down to "her" bedroom in our house and her storage locker (thankfully small!).  

 

Don't even get me started on our book collection .....

[namelesswonder]

I completely emptied out my antique dresser this weekend and reorganized the drawers. I think I actually threw out very little, it was just a matter of putting things in places that make sense. That's what most of my cleaning/minimizing is about, because I'm a scatterbrain and I need systems so I know where stuff goes and can find it later.

 

Storage is pretty limited in my apartment so having this desk is really useful for things like documents (old taxes, passport, birth certificate), batteries, back-up glasses, pens/pencils, tape etc. And since I managed to empty out one drawer entirely, that one is now dedicated to candles & candle holders (anything I don't care to display at that moment). I used an old LootCrate box after tearing off the lid and boxes from BirchBox (makeup subscription) to organize the middle drawer and stop things from sliding around. The chest under the desk has candle-making supplies (the big bag of wax obviously does not fit haha).

 

I also finally hung my pointe shoes up on a bedroom wall. I've wanted to do that for years, even though I haven't done ballet since high school. It's just an aesthetic that I love and I know I'll never bother selling these so why not make something pretty of it?

 

[TMedina]

Organizing counts!

[Raincloak]

On Saturday, having clothes for donation in the car turned out to be fortuitous.  a homeless woman asked me for "a blanket," which I could not supply, but i did have a nice clean hooded sweatshirt to give her.  She put it on right away.  Guess she felt cold.

 

Sunday featured people screaming at me, slamming doors in my face and being general shit.  (I have a part time door to door job.)  So much for karma.

 

 

[Evicious]

Currently working through all the things left in a ginormous, disorganized pile in the garage from our last move. I keep trying to get my husband to help, but as he has less motivation than I do to deal with it, I've resigned myself to the task at hand being a one-woman show.

 

It's difficult for me to organize some of it, though - the things that belong to him, specifically. No matter how conveniently I sort them or how many times I ask him to check if there are some things he wants to keep vs. things he no longer wants, I just can NOT get him to participate. He has a strong emotional connection to all his things - even receipts, if they're from an event he considered somehow significant - so I understand his reticence to dig in... but it's still slowly driving my crazy!!! (I have no such emotional connection to 90% of things I call mine, which is a concept he conversely finds very difficult to grasp.) 

 

I think my next move is going to be simply putting all his things in a couple of giant boxes (organized, obviously - I can't not organize :P) and stacking them in the garage. That way everything is there if he suddenly remembers something and wants it, but I won't be silently brooding over it in the meantime.

[TMedina]

@Evicious:   (this is why the Army has tough boxes.  In a pinch, I've found those large Rubbermaid 14 gallon storage totes to be a good substitute.)

 

For myself, I've discovered another pitfall - experimentation.  Rather than just use the tool at hand and have done, I constantly look for the one utensil or tool or bit of clothing that's just right.

 

My only consolation, thus far, has been to give away the tools/utensils that didn't make the grade so they aren't cluttering my space, collecting dust.

 

To date, I've given away six pairs of exercise shorts, five tank tops, five shirts I've never worn but were convinced were a good buy, a colander, a four quart (?) stock pot, a stack of plastic bowls, a bag of pens that will dry up before I use them (darn you, back to school clearance sales!), and two running pullovers I haven't worn in over a year.  And a couple of fleece beanies.

 

 

[Raincloak]

@TMedina  it might help to think of your purchase as a "rental."  You paid to keep the items for a while, and now that you are done with them, it's time for them to move along (these aren't the tools you're looking for).

 

Everything in this life is on loan, including your body.

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

I stopped going through things when we decided NOT to move, but now I need to get back into cleaning out stuff that I just don't use.  Starting with my closet.  

 

 

 

[Raincloak]

Did some dusting.  (Man I hate cheap rental carpet, it's such a dust breeder.  I'm deeply glad I have no allergies.)

I need to get rid of some stuff so I can dust easier. 

 

Dusting is one of those chores that just kind of amuses me, like: if your stuff is collecting dust, it's obviously not getting used, so why do you have it?  Why does anybody need to dust apart from, like, the top of the fridge every couple months?

 

ybe it's those silly looking feather dusters.  (I normally wipe dust with a damp sponge but when I have some cash, I might get an ostrich duster.  They have other uses besides cleaning: tickling, taunting cats, sweeping up spiders, playing sexy maid ....)

 

Or maybe just cause "dust" is a fun word to say.  Especially followed by "bunny."

[namelesswonder]

Feather dusters tend to just stir things up and don't remove that much dust from your overall environment. Microfiber products probably pick up the most. I rarely dust, but we live in an old house so it accumulates quickly. And I do have awful dust allergies. I should really start wearing a mask when I clean.

 

My minimizing efforts are about to be undone. I cleared/created a sewing area for my renewed hobby, but now I need to create a way to neatly stash fabric & accoutrements. Maybe some kind of tray system like for an office? That seems too small and too lightweight.

[Bookish Badger]

I had an aunt whose quilting went past hobby or profession and practically into a holy calling, and when they retired and built their dream house, she had a custom-built sewing/quilting room. With all that storage splendor, what she found most effective for fabric storage was....pizza boxes. I'm not sure where she got them, but she'd buy pizza boxes from whoever manufactures them and staple small snips of the fabric they contained to the front. She said it was the only flat-file solution that worked for her: lightweight but sturdy, protects the fabric, easy to shuffle around, easy to stack.

[Reinfire]

I had an aunt whose quilting went past hobby or profession and practically into a holy calling, and when they retired and built their dream house, she had a custom-built sewing/quilting room. With all that storage splendor, what she found most effective for fabric storage was....pizza boxes. I'm not sure where she got them, but she'd buy pizza boxes from whoever manufactures them and staple small snips of the fabric they contained to the front. She said it was the only flat-file solution that worked for her: lightweight but sturdy, protects the fabric, easy to shuffle around, easy to stack.

That's...pretty brilliant actually!

[Reinfire]

I had an aunt whose quilting went past hobby or profession and practically into a holy calling, and when they retired and built their dream house, she had a custom-built sewing/quilting room. With all that storage splendor, what she found most effective for fabric storage was....pizza boxes. I'm not sure where she got them, but she'd buy pizza boxes from whoever manufactures them and staple small snips of the fabric they contained to the front. She said it was the only flat-file solution that worked for her: lightweight but sturdy, protects the fabric, easy to shuffle around, easy to stack.

That's...pretty brilliant actually!

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

On 5/24/2016 at 11:46 AM, Bookish Badger said:

I had an aunt whose quilting went past hobby or profession and practically into a holy calling, and when they retired and built their dream house, she had a custom-built sewing/quilting room. With all that storage splendor, what she found most effective for fabric storage was....pizza boxes. I'm not sure where she got them, but she'd buy pizza boxes from whoever manufactures them and staple small snips of the fabric they contained to the front. She said it was the only flat-file solution that worked for her: lightweight but sturdy, protects the fabric, easy to shuffle around, easy to stack.

 

Wow!!  I love it when someone is clever enough to see past the habitual uses and see the functional aspects of something like this!!

[Raincloak]

Puttered around the house today instead of getting my ass out on a training run.  It's interesting, but now that I'm getting used to living in a less cluttered space, clutter actually causes me mental exhaustion and gives me an urge to get rid of it.

 

Did some digital decluttering and backing up of data, hung some art, finally put up the magnetized kitchen bar I've had for like six months, stuck the knives on it and pitched my knife block (freeing up counter space in pico-kitchen FTW).  Tossed a few kitchen implements I never use in the donation bag, including some extra knives and the shitty plastic measuring cups and spoons I bought in college.  At some point I'll replace them with a set of stainless steel or measuring cups and spoons like I've always wanted, but until then I'll use my Pyrex graded cup for measuring liquids and just eyeball the teaspoons.  Who am I kidding, how often do I measure things for recipes anyway?  (Answer: only when I'm baking, which is maybe twice a month.  When cooking, I just sling stuff in the pan and chow it when it's done.)

 

I cleaned up and tested my new (used) waffle iron, a refugee from a freebie bin.  Seems to work okay, if a bit weak.  Waffled hashbrowns coming up later.  If I tire of the thing, it can go on to another home, but I've never had a waffle iron before, so I'm going to see if I like having one.  If so it will join my chest of useful appliances.

 

Also scored a mega prize at the thrift store: a gorgeously seasoned, century-old cast iron skillet.  Cast iron skillets cost more than they did ten years ago (thanks a lot hipsters) but this treasure is still one sweet deal.  At a different thrift store I picked up an ancient e-reader, which I've wanted for some time because reading books on my phone is bad for bedtime and sucks hard on the battery (hur hur hur).  Surprise: when I got it home and charged it up, I discovered 200 sci-fi and fantasy books very kindly left on it by the previous owner!  Bless you, mysterious fellow nerd (guessing you're a guy based on your choice of authors; call me?).  $5 for charity and months of reading for me.

 

A couple useless trinkets did follow me home from the thrift shop, but they're outnumbered by the things that are departing.  Now that I've got the e-reader, I can sell the cracked iPad I've never really had much use for, and rustle up some cash I definitely do have use for.

[TMedina]

Awesome!  That's one of the few(ish) reasons I'm glad I don't live in Portland anymore - the Good Will stores out there were just...insane.

[Raincloak]

oh some of the ones around Seattle are nutty too, especially on weekends.  Last time I went to Goodwill in a hipster-dense area, some jerk stole a nice ladder-style shelf right out of my cart when I turned my back to look at some books.  When I was buying that e-reader at the outlet shop this week, a woman ahead of me walked off with EVERY single tablet in the display case (about 20 of them), intending to resell the ones that worked -- and she said she did this regularly.  (But she left the Nooks and Kindles behind  XD )  

 

Salvation Army is where I scored the skillet; it's in the industrial district (and a religious organization), so they get a lot of homeless people and elderly retirees in there, but not so many students and hipsters.  Likewise their loot is the kind of things you get at estate sales: dining tables, chintzy china, not so much with the beer posters and anarchist books.  Different demographic.

 

Ah well.  You're familiar with the Macklemore song, right?  Very Seattle.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8mJJJvaes

 

 

[Raincloak]

Still have to declutter the closet, do the filing and pick through the dislikable office slacks.  I'm procrastinating by cleaning out the fridge and freezer.  Made delicious chicken soup and ground some frozen bread into breadcrumbs (excellent for sprinkling on veggies and pasta, for you non-paleo types).  Amazing how compact crumbs are compared to bread.  Made gigantic mess in the kitchen, which is motivating me to declutter further so I can vacuum.

 

Also agreed to let a friend have her birthday party at my beachside apartment, which means I've really gotta get the place stripped down in the next three weeks, or the crazy people she's inviting might wreck shit.  The less exposed stuff, the less chance of it getting stolen, stained or smashed.  Some of my treasures are going into a storage chest, but some are probably ready to leave the premises for good.

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

On 6/3/2016 at 9:09 PM, Raincloak said:

The less exposed stuff, the less chance of it getting stolen, stained or smashed

 

Wow - you run with a wild crowd!!!

[Raincloak]

@Chris-Tien Jinn:  I really don't, I hate wild parties. These guests belong to a somewhat less responsible friend of mine who works with, ahem, "at risk youth."  I limited the headcount to 10 (my place is pretty small anyhow) and banned weapons, but I started to worry a little when my friend asked me to hide my booze because she's bringing a recovering alcoholic... nothing wrong with former addicts (I've lived and worked with a few) but they may have other bad habits, or hang out with those who do.  Or they may not be "former."  I don't even know.

 

I'm confident I can manage the kids but no point taking chances.  Even sober people can have accidents around nice furniture.